Wednesday, July 30, 2014

One year ago today I made my unexpected debut in Boston, Mass, far away from home but in great hands. Today, you'd never know I was a preemie, that I was born with meningitis and scared the heck out of my family, that I spent a month in the NICU. Today I am Just Fine. Better than Fine. I'm plump and developing appropriately. Any areas in which I'm behind (say, sleeping through the night) are my mom's fault (Hey! She likes to snuggle me!).

I am busy and I am noisy. I babble; I squawk; I growl. I say "dog," "baby," "doll," "Mama," "hello," or pretty close renditions. I wave; I talk on the phone (the shoe phone, the banana phone, the block phone...). I've learned to make an ungodly screech if someone takes an electrical cord out of my mouth or I'm forced to return a toy I've stolen from a cousin. But my cousins! How I love my cousins. I lean my head in close to theirs to hug them over and over when I see them. I've gotten to see lots of cousins this summer.

My mom told my sisters I'd annoy them someday and they didn't believe it. But I know how to bug them when they're on the computer, or to head for the stairs or dog food super quick when Mom or Dad asks them to watch me. I can pull hair and I pinch when I'm pulling up on Big Sis's shoulders. I also know how to let my sisters know if they're annoying me. We're like legit siblings now.

I'm not walking yet; there's time for that. I'm a really efficient crawler, and I like to cruise between pieces of furniture. Sometimes I take my hands off just to show off. My favorite activity is standing up and playing--at a table, water table, play kitchen...I have lots of plans for things to build and touch and put in my mouth.

Thank you to all of you who have made my life wonderful, and my family's life manageable! There are SO MANY OF YOU. It's been quite a year for my family, watching me, holding me, hugging me, and chasing me. I'm booking them for more chasing me around during my second year. And I've got walking and talking to master.

But first, tonight? How about some Elmo cupcakes my sisters made? Happy birthday to me!

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Tootsie is on the cusp of turning one year old, on the cusp of walking and talking and ditching the breast and the bottle. She is on the cusp of beyond babyhood. I mused on her sweet uncalloused feet last night, respecting how little time of tenderness remains.

This month of her almost-oneness, the month when, a year ago, our lives went topsy turvy, has been emotional. I can easily recall planning for the upcoming year at work, packing for travel, unpacking at the new house, and enjoying pregnancy. Summer feels like Boston. It feels like the hospital. It feels like uncertainty and anything can happen. It also feels like family, like love, like hope and excitement.

Tootsie is busy, busy, busy. We took her on her first airplane ride since coming home from Boston, to Iowa to visit Husband's father. We spent much of the weekend in the hospice house with family, Tootsie providing distractions and entertainment, cruising from chair to coffee table, babbling and growling and cackling with laughter at her sisters. Life continues, we all nodded, as the seventeen-year cicadas swarming in the trees outside provided a fervent symphony.

She eats curried chicken salad, apples, diced grapes, and even Baked Lays potato chips (benefit of a trip to Subway with her babysitter) with her sharp little teeth, including new fangs on top. She loves swimming, soccer balls (gooooooaaaaaaaaallll!), toys with microphones, and rocks. She sings along. She makes noises like an elephant. She loves her baby cousins.

As always, she grins and smiles and laughs far more than she ever complains. She's been ours for almost a year. We can hardly remember life without her.

Daily Clicks

I am...

a forty-something wife, mother of three daughters, teacher/educator, amateur writer, artist and runner, among other temporary and permanent conditions. I dream about living and teaching in Africa (again), writing a novel (for the first time), working part-time, having another child (just did this!) and somehow, leading a less-hectic, simpler life--ha! I ask myself what part of my life can give right now so I feel I have more, and what can I add or bring back to my life to enrich it? I don't think I know anyone in my circumstance (raising young children and working or not working) who doesn't wonder what better ways there are.